Michigan UnderWater Divers Club

Bob and Jim dropping a backup anchor line

Four the of the Mud Club members motored out to the Ironsides off Grand Haven Michigan on Saturday. Finding a boat lunch was a little of a challenge with the Grand Haven Coast Guard Festival in full progress. A lucky wrong turn led the mud club divers to a suitable backup launch location. The ramps is a little steeper than most ramps as highlighted by all gear in the back of the vehicle finding its way into the water. It is rumored that their is video of mishap.

With Summer weekends in limited supply it was great to finally get to this dive site. The visibility was very good at around 65 feet. Darrin and Jim went down in he first dive. Bob and Kirk took the next dive. The wreck is continuing to break down over time and if you haven’t had a chance to dive it you need to get it on your scuba bucket list. This 218 foot wreck sitin on the bottom of 120′ deep is worthy of two tanks or a visit with a rebreather.

Grand Haven Coast Guard Festival

You can visit the Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates for a full write up on the ironsides. http://www.michiganshipwrecks.org/ironside.htm

Here is the Video that Ken took on the Ann Arbor #5

After a surface interval of almost 2 hours and a short boat ride, we all dropped back into Lake Michigan to visit The Barge & Crane. Visibility while good, was not as nice as the previous dive on the AA5 and temps still in the mid-40’s.

The depth here is about 128′ with a fine sediment layer on the bottom. The wreck is an overturned barge with a crane mounted to the deck that keeps the barge propped up at an angle. This allows a bit of a swim through while exploring what was the deck of the barge. Recently discovered, its easy to wonder how and why this equipment ended up here.

After a bit of exploration, all five of the divers made their way back to the anchor line for the ascent back to the surface.

We were happy to see that during the dives, the lake conditions had settled quite a bit and allowed for a very nice boat ride back to South Haven

The day began as planned meeting at the South Haven public boat ramp at 9:00 am. The weather was terrific and promised to be great for a morning of diving on Lake Michigan.

After preparing and securing gear, we splashed the boats and made our way out of the Black River and into Lake Michigan. While the marine forecast indicated 0-1′, we actually had 1′-3′ on the ride out. Not as comfortable, but when the destination holds a dive it was all good!

The marker buoy was easy to find, as long as you followed Bob anyway. With the boats secured to the buoy, we all prepared to dive.

Dropping into the water was a cool relief as the air was already well into the 80’s. Darrin and Jim entered the water, followed a few minutes later by Bob, Paul and Kirk. Following the buoy line, we dropped through the thermocline and sediment layer, onto the stern of the Ann Arbor 5. Almost completely covered in zebra mussels, she is quite a sight with her stern reaching up from the bottom and the screws and rudder suspended mid-water. Visibility was approx 50′-60′ feet as you could see from one side to the other, and to the bottom from the stern. Water temp at depth was in the mid 40’s.

The uppermost parts can be explored without exceeding recreational depths of about 130′, while the remainder is in the technical realm at a max depth of about 170′. The sloping deck can draw you in to following it without realizing just how quickly you have descended beyond your planned depth.

A very interesting and fun dive, sure to be visited again.

Raceing back from diving

Today was hot and sunny, Lake Michigan was coorperating and though we did not locate the wreck we were after, at the least we know where it is not. Now all we have to do is adjust the search and try, try again. The therocline on the first dive was at ~ 40 feet indicated by your fingers and toes suddenly freezing and the loss of visibility.  Below the particulate cloud the visibility improved a lot .  One item that was located looked like an old anchor but upon “hands on” investigation turned out to be a part of a tree. That shadow had us going for a few minuites.  On the second dive, in a slightly different location, we noticed the temperature delta started earlier at about 33 feet and it was still darn cold on the bottom but very refreshing considering how hot we were on the surface in our wet suits. Yea, I know, get a dry suit.  Maybe next year:)  All in all a very pleasant way to spend a Saturday in July.

North Pier & Tiscornia Beach

Today was sunny, hot, and muggy with the wind from the North West giving  the lake a hint of white caps and deep swells against the north pier. That surge  made the visibility pretty lousy in areas of silt and particulate, but not so bad among the boulders, there you had at least 2 to 3 feet of visibility. With the sun  up high you could see the boulders just before you ran into them. Water temperature was bath tub warm until you got out past the rip/rap toward the end of the pier in 18-22 feet of water, it turned cold really quickly.  Lots of game fish, carp  in the hollows of the boulders, and ton’s of gobies everywhere.  And of course treasures

Saint Joseph South Pier - July 2010

Several days were optimum for diving the St. Joe South Pier this week.  Water temperture was averaging ~68F and depending on which day you dove the visibility really changed. Today (Wed) the visibility averaged at least 10 feet which was great for grubbing  and really being able to check out the rip/rap at the base of the South Pier.  No matter which day you went the scenery was great.  Check out the Treasure page for grubbing finds.

Ken, Lucy, and Sir Larry on the way to the Ann Arbor #5

Two boats, 5 divers and 1 tender left South Haven in heavy swells to locate and dive the “Ann Arbor #5 (AA5).” The weather was just about perfect (except for the swells) and the bouy was located without any trouble.

The Great Lakes car ferry Ann Arbor No. 5 (AA5) is a Great Lakes Car Ferry that was  360 feet long with a ~56 foot beam and an ~19 foot draft. She had four tracks and a capacity of 30 railroad cars. Her twin propellers, measuring 12 feet 6 inches across, and the huge rudder are accessible at about 125 feet. Swimming forward (downward) from the stern can find the unaware diver in 155 feet of water without realizing it.

Divers today were Sir. Larry Steelman, Ken Riemer and Diver Tender (Dive Mother) Lucy Riemer on boat number 1 and Jim Scarlet, Darrin Jillson, and Don McAlhany on boat number 2. A video of todays dive, taken by Ken Riemer,  will be posted soon.

** UPDATE ** You can view the video of the dive here!

Jim, Josh, Kirk and Darrin visited the wreck South Bend in Diamond Lake. The Tuesday night dive took advantage of the warm water and great weather. Jim’s brought his boat and Kirk provided the GPS. The anchor was dropped within 20 yards of the wreck, but as tradition with this lake bottom the anchor plowed a path away from the wreck. Following the trench you could find the wreck. Visibility was on the low side at 6’. Surface water temperature was 77 degrees F and was 58 degrees F on the wreck at 43’.

Gull Lake

It was a little windy, but the vis was still great. Bob S., Jim K., Josh K. and Darrin ventured into Gull Lake early Saturday morning. The projected meeting time was 9:00 am at the Gull Lake park, but it took 20 minutes for the “person with the keys” to unlock the gate. Surface water temperature was 68 degrees F and water temp below the thermocline was  55 degrees F. Visibility was over 20’ which made exploring the objects underwater enjoyable. The fax machine has been moved to the top of the phone booth. That must be to improve reception. By the end of the dive the park was full of at least 20 divers preparing to enter the water.

Josh at Gull